Deportivo crashes out of Primera for first time in 20 years

On a frantic final round of Liga action late Saturday night, Deportivo la Coruña was relegated to the Segunda División for the first time in two decades following a 0-2 loss to Valencia. It took just four minutes for Deportivo to find itself in 18th place in the table, Aritz Aduriz guiding home a Joaquín cross to add an extra incline to what was already an uphill battle for the home side.

Mallorca's survival owes as much to Valencia as to its own effort, which was certainly not lacking in a 3-4 defeat at the hands of Atlético in the Ono Estadi. Had Deportivo equalized in the Riazor, Mallorca, which began the evening in 13th position, would have joined Almería and Hércules in the drop zone. Spurred by this knowledge, Michael Laudrup's team fought back from 0-3 down to embellish its own high noon, but Depor's lack of firepower eventually decided the matter.

Dani Aranzubia: "You get relegated for 38 games, not one"

The Galician side could hardly complain; it managed to score fewer goals- 31- than any other Primera División side during the campaign, a paucity that played as much a part in final-day failure as a surprisingly sprightly Valencia and its evergreen goalkeeper, César, who clawed away every attempt Deportivo could muster. The woodwork also conspired to keep the coastal club at bay despite 28 shots on goal and 11 corners. Both Riki and Adrián- nominally Deportivo's goal scorers but with only 11 between them all season- had several gilt-edged chances to draw level but as the clock ran down Miguel Ángel Lotina's increasingly desperate team finally fell on the double-edge of its own sword. Valencia launched a counterattack in the 94th minute that Roberto Soldado finished with precision before trotting almost apologetically back to the half way line through Deportivo's crestfallen players.

The referee might well have spared the home side the trouble of restarting the match; by that stage any glimmer of hope had been definitively extinguished. "Next year we will return to Primera because we are going to do things well from the start of the season," said Juan Carlos Valerón, with club captain Manuel Pablo the final survivor from the heady days of the Liga and cup-winning "SuperDepor."

"We'll take the team back to where they deserve to be."

Lotina, who may still prove to be an attractive proposition for a Primera club next season, was circumspect in defeat: "We had a lot of bad luck in today's game. With all our chances, we had not one drop of luck. The game against Gijón [where two penalties, one the last kick of the game, were awarded against Deportivo] also contributed and all this has taken us into Segunda," Lotina opined. "I'm very sorry for the fans. Neither they nor the players deserve to go down."

Dani Aranzubia, Deportivo's goalkeeper who made a pair of outstanding saves to keep his side in the running, was more concise: "You get relegated for 38 games, not one."

Back in Mallorca, there was an end-of-era feel to Atlético's final match of the season as well. Quique Sánchez Flores oversaw his last game in charge of the side, while Diego Forlán was once again left out of the squad. David de Gea, Atlético's much-admired goalkeeper, has been tipped to succeed Edwin van der Sar at Manchester United and question marks over the future of star striker Sergio Agüero will resurface with vigor during the summer.

The Argentina international, whose father-in-law, Diego Maradona, has said must move for his development, scored three magnificent goals in Mallorca to take his tally for Atlético to 101 but did not celebrate any of his strikes, which elevated him to the league's joint-third highest scorer with Sevilla's Álvaro Negredo.